New Season's Best Recipes: Critiques

[esavvymom]

Chicken Parmesan SoupI made this last night, and my family loved it. Again, my picky eater had quite a helping also.

What I did:
When I was cooking the chicken in the RCB, I put some Garlic & Herb rub on the chicken breasts. Probably would have worked also with Italian Seasoning, or Crushed Peppercorn & Garlic (one of my favs). I also added some pressed garlic cloves. Cooked that up, and it gave the chicken some flavor instead of being bland cooked chicken.

I didn't have French Bread, so I made the "Quick & easy homemade yeast bread" from here in the DCB. Used 2-3 slices to make my croutons (YUM!!), and then we had the rest of the bread with our soup.


The only thing I would do differently is not put the croutons on the soup. I'd put the cheese, but leave the croutons off until served, then put them on each serving. I don't care for soggy bread.

 

[Bren706]

My team member had her first show today and made the Big Enchilada. It was only her, her mom, an aunt, and two others, so I had a little bit. It was great! I am definitely going to start offering it as a show recipe. She used bell pepper instead of pablano (and forgot to blot them dry), so I am not sure if that made a difference. We talked about serving it with spanish rice (and I would add black beans to the rice).

 

[Bren706]

Oh, and she used the show presentation cards, and the prep called for chopping the cilantro, but it was not on the ingredient list, so she did not use it.

 

[Energizermom]

I personally thought the pasta carbonara was bland, so I added chili lime rub to it and we really liked it...went from ok to yummy. I imagine you could add other rubs as well, that just happens to be one of my favs.

 

[[email protected]]

Has anyone made the parmesan thumbprints yet? Any tips?

 

[Chefgirl2]

I've made the Thumbprints twice. The first time my host had whole wheat flour and jarred shredded parmesan...UGH! Luckily, we made them ahead and were able to toss them before anyone came. Last night at our team meeting we did it the right way...I still say grosss. We had about half left over...mainly because everyone thought they'd be great and took two.

I didn't measure the flour, so maybe who did that step packed it. I felt like I was eating a slightly flavored ball of flour. I'm not doing them again unless I'm given some really good tips to tweak them.

 

[wadesgirl]

I made three desserts for a family lunch today - orange blossom cakes, salty carmel mousse cups and cherry cordial cups.DH had one of the cherry cordial cups right after I made them and said they were better than his mom's chocolate covered cherries. I did put them in the fridge to set before we left and I think the chocolate at the bottom got too hard (I personally didn't try them because I'm not a cherry fan). Next time I make them I will probably brush the cups with the basting brush to spread the chocolate around more. They were super simple to make since the cups are already made. Everybody loved the carmel mousse cups. These were simple to make once the cups were assembled - next time I will use more pretzels as some of them didn't form a cup once a squished them in to the MMP. I did forget to put the cool whip in the filling but it didn't make that much of a difference - it probably just would have been a lighter filling.The orange blossom cakes were easy to make in a sense considering that it's a homemade cake recipe. It did have a lot of steps which used a lot of bowls. My nephew loved them so much he asked if I could make them for his birthday. My sister-in-law loved the glaze that was on the cakes. All of the recipes would be easy to make more than once batch if you have more than one MMP or brownie pan. They all got rave reviews from everybody who tried them - including my cousin who took home some of the leftovers!

 

[brendamrk]

Any suggestions for making the fajita bites vegetarian, what would you replace the chicken with?

You could substitute cooked Lentils or Chickpeas (Manual Food Processor) for the chicken. You would need to use veggie cheese in place of cheese and soft tofu with lemon in place of sour cream for vegan.

 

[chefani]

Any suggestions for making the fajita bites vegetarian, what would you replace the chicken with?

I had a show for a vegan friend and she helped me make the fajita bites into a vegan friendly dish. We substituted vegan crumbles (a textured vegetable protein) for the chicken and used the vegan cheese, vegan sour cream & vegan mayo. Even the carnivores at the show liked them!

 

[CitizenChef]

Help - I loaned my recipe book to my hostess but need the recipe for the Pork Medallions to practice. If you have the book - Volume 3 - please post it! Thanks!